11/22/13 - There was no controversy or gathering of concerned citizens last night when the Pinckney School Board voted to close the third elementary school building in recent memory. The board approved closing Lakeland Elementary School at the end of the school year last night. Superintendent Rick Todd tells WHMI that closing an elementary school was part of the the district's recently-approved deficit elimination plan, and the district needs to restructure as the community downsizes. The closure will save the district about $350,000 annually, but the board described it as a difficult and painful decision to make. The district still has not decided how to divide the school's students between its two remaining elementary schools, but Todd says they plan to find a use for the Lakeland building rather than sell it off. Lakeland is the third elementary school to be closed in the district since the recession began, following Hamburg and Pinckney Elementary Schools, which generated a much stronger response from teachers and parents at the time. Pinckney remains on the market, and interested buyers have been touring the facility, but last night the board approved a signed purchase agreement for the Hamburg Elementary building. That sale is not part of the deficit elimination plan, so if it goes through it will provide about $550,000 in revenue the district was not expecting. The building was sold to a company called Vertex from Utah. Todd says almost nothing is known about that organization other than it tends to buy properties, renovate them, and resell for a profit. (TD)
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